Posting this here to warn anyone who has a Pro 5400s Series model or is thinking about buying one and needs to use the eDrive encryption feature.
It is currently NOT POSSIBLE to use eDrive with this model, as it must first be enabled by the Intel SSD Pro Administrator command line tool, and, as of the current (June 2016) version of the tool - 1.1.3 - enabling eDrive is apparently not supported. The tool will yield a "Error: The selected drive does not support this feature."
After speaking with an uninformed Intel support rep (was not aware of this limitation), and insisting they try to replicate the issue on their end (since this is a new series of SSDs), support was able to replicate the issue. This is a series-wide issue. eDrive is listed as a feature on the spec sheet for the Pro 5400s Series and yet, until Intel provides an updated tool actually capable of flipping the bit needed to enable the feature, it is not actually capable of doing eDrive encryption. I escalated to a Customer Service Manager, who was not able to get an estimated date for the updated admin tool to enable this feature.
(Looking at the release notes history or the SSD Pro Admin tool, there was a 4 month gap between when support was added for the previous SSD Pro 2500 series and then support was added to specifically enable eDrive. Seems like more should be made of that distinction, but that's just my 2 cents!).
Just an FYI, if anyone needs to use eDrive BitLocker with a 5400s series drive TODAY - it is not possible.
If anyone at Intel reads this, feel free to chime in with an estimated release date for the admin tool update needed to enable ALL of the advertised features of this drive if more info becomes available.
